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Nursing, pumping and feeding help

My son is 3 1/2 weeks and at his 2 week appt he had a big weight loss. Well after seeing an LC we determined he was tongue tied & my supply had taken a hit. So now he has been clipped & I am taking More Milk Plus and I nurse him, then I pump & I also feed him expressed milk. My questions is how much expressed milk should I be giving him? I have been giving him 2 oz (after nursing him but LC said he is only getting .6 oz when nursing) I upped it to 3 oz's this morning to see how much he would take & he drank it all but spit up quite a bit. I am so confused & tired...I feel like all I do is feed or pump all day & night

Re: Nursing, pumping and feeding help

Babies will always take more from the bottle because it is less work. It's ok to feed him less and let him tell you he is hungry again later. Have you heard of the SNS? It is a good way to let him nurse, get milk and boost your supply.
You can also pump more often, hand express, let him nurse more often, lie in bed all day skin to skin nursing and that is a huge help for supply boosting. Eat oatmeal, drink plenty of water, rest as much as possible and nurse, nurse, nurse!

Re: Nursing, pumping and feeding help

Welcome and congrats on the new baby! I'm sorry about the tongue tie and weight loss. How frustrating!

I would keep the supplementing to 2 oz or even less. That's about all the average 3.5 week-old baby is eating at a time, and it's better to have to nurse/supplement again sooner than to give a huge bottle and have the baby overeat, and then pass out for hours or spit-up half of what he ate!

Do you have a professional scale for home use? By doing a weigh-feed-weigh at home, you can determine exactly how much your baby ate and how much you really need to offer in a supplemental bottle.

I know pumping is exhausting! Here are some things that made it easier for me:
1. After pumping, leave the pump screwed onto the bottle and pop the whole thing in the fridge. When it's time to pump again, just re-use. My LC said it was safe to pump new milk on top of old 1 time before washing everything again.
2. Fill a large basin w/ soapy water, leave it by the sink, and throw bottles and pump parts in as they are used. I found it easier to do one giant wash-up per day than a zillion tiny ones.

Finally, has anyone mentioned using a supplemental nursing system or lact-aid to you? They are devices that allow you to supplement your baby at the breast instead of using a bottle. (Oops, Juno beat me to it! )

Re: Nursing, pumping and feeding help

I have no additional information but wanted offer hugs. My son was tongue tied and my daughter was a preemie, so I can sympathize about the pumping. How is the nursing going? Are you planning on going entirely to the breast at some point?